


All This And Heaven Too

by GodAndMonsters



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hicsqueak, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Rape, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:40:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25691464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GodAndMonsters/pseuds/GodAndMonsters
Summary: “It’s her isn’t it?” Pippa says as she walks closer toward her long lost friend. “That’s why you are so hard on her, that’s why-““She should never have come here to begin with!” Hecate tries to convince  herself, convince Pippa, convince the world. But she fails. Her eyes burns with the tears she holds and she isn’t even sure for whom she cries anymore.. for a seventeen year old girl who didn’t have a chance? For a friendship who could have grown towards something more but was torn apart in the most cruel way..? Or for the young girl who never had a chance to use the word ‘mom’.--TW- mentions of rape, nothing graphic though.
Relationships: Hardbroom & Mildred Hubble, Hardbroom/Pentangle (Worst Witch)
Comments: 41
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So... I had to write it. Don't know why, don't know if it's even needed to be written but its here.
> 
> TW- mentions of rape, nothing graphic though.

“It’s her isn’t it?” Pippa says as she walks closer toward her long lost friend. “That’s why you are so hard on her, that’s why-“

“She should never have come here to begin with!” Hecate tries to convinceherself, convince Pippa, convince the world. But she fails. Her eyes burns with the tears she holds and she isn’t even sure for whom she cries anymore.. for a seventeen year old girl who didn’t have a chance? For a friendship who could have grown towards something more but was torn apart in the most cruel way..? Or for the young girl who never had a chance to use the word ‘mom’.

“Fate plays wicked games isn’t she?” the blonde takes one step closer and reaches for a shaking porcelain hand, squeezing it softly between her palms she takes a deep breath before she says her next words “I didn’t know.., when I offered her the scholarship.. I didn’t know, Hecate”

“Maybe its for the best” Hecate whispers and releases her hand from the secure embrace it longed to reunite with. “She’s not doing well here, she knows nothing about the witch’s code..” Hecate laughs, but its forced and harsh and feel like knives slicing into Pippa’s skin. tearing apart what used to be her shield, her shelter. her Hiccup. “Hecate,” she breathes, heavily, she doesn’t know what to say, what can make this all better, easier, tolerable.

“She’s Ada’s favourite..” the brunette suddenly confessed. “Of course Ada has no idea.. I had no idea at first..”

“How did you find out?”

“The great wizard.., when he came here- he did some research about Mildred’s past, how a girl from non magical family can have such power.. I mean she has absolutely no idea how to control it but-“

“Mildred is a very powerful witch.., how he managed to find out? Didn’t she get adopted, a closed quiet one?” The wizard had his connections but he didn’t mingle around in the non-magical world. In fact, he wishes to keep these two worlds separated as much as possible. Needless to say he isn’t a fan of Pippa or her academy.

“She went back to foster care… that’s when she made quite a name for herself there.. foster families reported strange behaviours.. I guess that got the council’s attention and they kept an eye on her.., when she ended up here they dug out her file. Her birth mother name is Joy.”

“What are you going to do Hecate?” Pippa has to ask. Has to know, to help, somehow. She hasn’t seen Hecate in eleven years, not since that night. “What do you want to do?” she clarifies.. because even if she thinks Mildred deserves the truth, Hecate, at this point, deserves a choice. It would do none of them good to have a relationship based on force. Force already played a big card in their unfair past.

“Teach her,” Hecate doesn’t stutter, the words flow naturally from her lips “I’ll be her teacher. Just like im suppose to be,”

“Ok,” for now it’s enough. For now, Pippa already pushed harder than she should have, harder than she allowed after eleven years of silence. She looks into familiar brown eyes, watches as Hecate clenches her watch as she fights her tears and she simply can not stop herself anymore “Ive missed you, Hiccup”

Hecate looks at her for a long time, a lonely tear sliding down her cheek and she barely manages to keep herself together as she replies “Iv’e missed you too, Pipsqueak” she swallows down her tears as the nickname leaves her red lips and she feels a bit of relief when Pippa reaches toward her and involve her in a hug. Her tears safely hidden in Pippa’s shoulder. Her hands holding her back and Pippa scent feels like coming home.

She feel rather than sees the door open, her senses always on alert and she isn’t surprise whencurious eyes picked from behind the door. “I, uh.. Excuse me” she quickly untangled herself from Pippa’s embrace and run after Mildred.

She knows she hasn’t hear too much. She could tell the second small feet stumbled down the corridor toward her room. Still, she needed to know one thing.

“I hear Ms. Pentangle’s offered you a scholarship”

Mildred slowly nods, her body tenses as if she expects Ms. Hardbroom to kick her out of the school. But then, as she looks at Ms. Hardbroom’s face something shifts inside her. It’s almost look as if Ms. Hardbroom is more nervous about her decision than she is. “And you considered her offer?” the brunette asks, her fists clenched tight.

“Yes,”

“Well, don’t keep us in suspense” Pippa appears out of nowhere, her smile shines and her tears all gone.

“I want to stay here,” Mildred answers. and she surprises herself when the words leaves her mouth, she was about to accept Ms. Pentangle offer, learning in a place where she be treated the same as anyone else. But when she looks at Ms. Hardbroom again, something akin to relief washes over her face and she knows she made the right decision.

Plus, she’s pretty sure she’s going to see Ms. Pentangle a lot from now own.

—————————————-

“To Millie!” Maud and Enid cheers in unison. “So how did you manage to cast this spell?” Maud asks.

“Yes, Millie, this spell is level four and you still managed to mess up the laughter spell yesterday..”

“Its all thanks to Tabby actually,” Mildred smiles.

“The thing is-“ Maud starts but being cut off by Enid who quickly reaches toward defend “We were trying to help.”

“Has something happened?” Mildred is concerned now, she is used to be the one who messes things out but she never spent much time on the left in the dark side.

“It would seem your cat is as bad at catching mice as you are at spells” Ms. Hardbroom appears, holding Tabby in her hands, she hands him to Mildred before she cautiously add “As you were,” and leaves the room.

“So what were you saying?” Mildred turns back to her guilty friends.

“Did Ms. Hardbroom just smile?” Enid frowns. Changing the subject.


	2. Chapter 2

Another week passes, Mildred manages to earn three detentions, two for blowing up the potion’s lab and one for turning Ethel into a frog- for the last one she isn’t completely sorry and Miss Hardbroom was a bit impressed that she managed to perform such a spell. She doesn’t let anyone knows she only meant to conjure a frog onto her desk. Turning her into one is a good payback after all.

During these detention she is forced to learn the Witch’s Code. ‘Might as well use this time properly’ Miss Hardbroom claims. So this is what she’s doing at the moment - book open she reads over the unreasonable rules she must follow - ‘A witch will not use a wand’, ‘A witch will not interfere with the non magic world’ ‘relationship with the non magic world must be limited’

“Ms. Hardbroom,” Mildred calls. The witch organising her laboratory and checks the label of each ingredient.

“Yes,” she replies, still looking at the bottle of red liquid in her hands, probably some poor animal blood.

“How do witches gain their magic?” The young witch asks and Hecate suddenly stops. A chill running down her spine and she commends her voice to come out sharply. “From their mothers of course,”

Mildred let the words sinks in, rolling them in her mind and connecting some dots Miss Hardbroom couldn’t quite comprehend before she finally asks her next question.

“Can a witch marry a non magical person?” she asks.

“No.” Hecate replies, “It used to be allowed before the age of the great wizard that’s why some witches still appears within non magical families, though it becomes rarer and rarer due to recents laws”

“I see…, So I must have some witches ancestors? Otherwise I wouldn’t have magic?” Mildred half asks half declares, her eyes sparks when an idea pops into her head. “Maybe there’s a potion that can help with that? that can reveal my family tree?”

“Magic must not be used for-“ Hecate starts to say but Mildred rudely cuts her off “I know, but.. its for the greater good,” she tries to reason. “Maybe if I know where my magic is from I can learn how to control it better, Miss Hardbroom you know how my magic is getting all wrong lately”

“It’s not getting _wrong_ ,” Hecate sighs before she walks toward the girl, her hands leaning against the desk in a way the was unlikely to her. And if Mildred noticed she stayed quiet. Too busy with her own turmoil of emotions to react. “You just get overwhelmed and your magic is connected to your emotions, you must learn how to calm yourself down,” she tries to explain, knowing her answer isn’t what the girl is looking for.“Especially around people like Ethel” she adds.

“I just.., she makes me so angry..”

“I know,”

“I didn’t mean to turn her into a frog…” she confesses.

“You didn’t?”

“I was trying to conjure a frog, not turning her into one, I only wanted her to jump and maybe spill down her potion..” she plays with her fingers as she tells it, avoiding the judging eyes of her teacher.

“Your emotions..” Miss Hardbroom says again, “You are a very powerful witch Mildred.”

And Mildred didn’t expect that. She expected Miss Hardbroom to yell at to gain control, to tell her how dangerous she is - because she is in fact dangerous when she has so little control over herself. She even expect to gain another detention. She basically lives at the potion lab as it is so it won’t be such a pain. But she did not expect Miss Hardbroom soft voice and open, sincere look. The teacher looked like she _cared_. She remembers how Miss Pentangle assure her once that Miss Hardbroom does care, care so much, maybe too much about her students. She let slip from her mind then, telling herself it was a different Miss Hardbroom that the blonde remembers. But now, now she could see what the blonde meant.

—————————

Pippa glances at the board. Something was not right. Hecate’s queen was all gone, been cruelly attack by one of Pippa’s bishops two moves ago, and now, her King is all helpless, completely exposed to Pippa’s white knight.

Hecate never lost a game of chess since Pippa first introduced her to game. Risking one glance at Hecate’s far away gaze Pippa sighs. “Ok, you either drank an unfortunate potion or something is on your mind?”

“What?” Hecate jumps. returning to her senses and finally looking at the board game, “Oh,” she gasps.

“Checkmate.”

“I didn’t see-“

“So what is it, Hiccup?” she asks as Hecate checks the board again, making sure she didn’t miss anything- or wondering how she missed everything.

“With everything that has been going on this term i wouldn’t rule out the first option so fast..” She declares after giving up and rearranging the board for a new match.

“Mildred,” Hecate finally confess “She is curios about her family tree..”

“Oh..”

“This girl.. if she put her mind to it there’s no changing it.., she thinks something is wrong with her,” Hecate gets up, walking back and forth in the small room, trying to gain control of her emotions.

“She’s young and had a lot of unfortunates events recently,” Pippa tries to reason, her hands aching to hold onto the brunette and calm down her turmoil. But Hecate isn’t hers to calm. No matter how much she wishes she will. No, Hecate belongs to no one, and Pippa will be damned before she’ll try to claim her as her own. Not now, not when Hecate still hasn’t find herself. Hasn’t belonged to herself. But Pippa, she belonged to Hecate, always has been.

“What if she will do something stupid? What if she will find _him_?” Hecate’s mind is screaming at her with a language she can’t understand but can only translate to _fear_. Always fear when his face flashes before her eyes. “She probably has some childish romantic idea about her parents” she chuckles humourlessly, her fists clench tight and her shoulders high and tense as if the weight of the world was thrown upon them.

“Hecate..” Pippa breathes slowly, trying to reach towards the brunette with her voice and pull her back toward reality “Hecate, no one knows but you, me and the grand wizard.” she tries to reassure, “Even if she will find the files, and it’s a big _if_ considering she has no access to them till she’s much older, the files only contains your name, your first name- Joy. It has no records about him,”

“She’s a witch,” Hecate hiss and elaborates no more. Her eyes locked on a far away spot on the wall.

“We both know she can’t possibly make that potion.”

“She’s my daughter,”

—————

“So…Why didn’t we just search for a Hubble in the academy’s pupils archive?” Enid asks as she wipes the dust from another big and old book.

“Because it will lead us nowhere…, Hubble is my adopting mother’s last name” Mildred explains, her eyes searching for any useful information on the book in her lamp but so far she found none.

“Wait… you were adopted? But I thought.. I mean..” Enid stutters and Maud rolls her eyes at her tactless friend.

“She died… car accident, when I was about three” Mildred coldly explain before she closes the book, deeming it worthless as she get up to search for another one.

“I’m sorry I didn’t-“

“Found something!” Maud’s happy yell saves Enid from another comments and both girls run towards their friend.

“Ancestors Voice ” Mildred reads, “I thinks that’s the one!”

“You did it Maud!” Enid jumps and hugs her friend.

“Don’t thank me yet, look at theingredients”

“Rarest lichen,” the brunette reads, I don’t think I saw it at HB’s lab..”

“That’s because it can only be found on the tallest tree in forests surrounding magical academies” Maud explains.

“So we need to go into the Hollow wood..” Enid’s voice shakes a little as she clarifies Maud words.

“That’s not even out biggest problem,” Maud sighs before she points toward another ingredient on the list, Great Wise Owl’s feather”

“Where can we find this owl?” Mildred asks.

“We can’t, they are extinct” Enid says, her eyes looking at the floor as she shatters her friend’s hope.

————————-

Pippa finds Mildred sleeping in the library, her face in a book as she snores softly.

She just spent hours on forcing the other brunette in her life to try and get some sleep and that’s why she founds herself walking those corridors at such hour.

When she peek at the book beneath Mildred's head she misses a breath. Still, she slowly shakes the girl and tries to wake her up. It will be better for her if Hecate won’t find her here.

“Mildred,” she whispers, earning herself a moan as a sleepy Mildred slowly opens her eyes.

“Miss Pentangle,” the child jumps from her chair, “I’m sorry I-“

“It’s ok Mildred, I think it’s better you’ll go to bed, I’ll keep this secret between us,” she winks at the girl and her smile is too forced Mildred noticed, but she’s too tired to question. She thanks the Headmistress, reminding herself to find out tomorrow what exactly brought the woman into the school at such hour, and walks toward her dorm.


	3. Chapter 3

Fighting with Pippa is familiar. Letting each word slips from her lips, aiming and lashing. it’s familiar. it’s in so many dysfunctional ways Hecate can’t even begin to figure out with herself, let alone with the blonde, feels like home.

The’ve been here before, so many times. Fighting is unescapable when in so many ways they are different, when they were kids they spent hours upon hours fighting and screaming over nothing really. And they were never afraid to fight. No. Fighting was always welcome and allowed because they both knew that no matter how much they will fight they will _always_ reconcile. One of them will finally put her pride aside and somehow they will find themselves in each other arms, snuggling on a way too small bed and hoping no teacher will appear out of thin air and forced them apart.

And how they were fighting now, with the same passion of the sixteen year old them. Hecate pressing against any buttons she can find and Pippa pressing back, each word filled with anger and pain and something they can’t quite explain, something that is _uniquely_ them.

“I’m not a little child!” Hecate screams when she finally remembers what starts it all. “Stop treating me like one! I can decide when to eat, when to sleep and how to discipline _my_ students!”

“I’ll stop treat like one when you stop acting like one!” Pippa yells back, taking two steps toward the panting brunette, her shallow, hot breath tickling her lips “You make everyone walking on eggshells around you, your pupils, your colleagues, even Ada! You barely eat, barley sleep, and you barley leave this room!”

“Don’t you dare-“ she hisses at the blonde but get caught off when Pippa points a sharp, pink finger at her.

“No, you listen to me now. No one has the guts to stand here and face you, no one but _me_. And Joy Hecate Hardbroom I’ll be damned before i will let you fall back into old habits, do you understand? You are not running away again.” she takes a step after step until Hecate has no choice but to walk backwards her back hitting the wall with a _thud_ and she has nowhere to run to.

“How did we come to this?” she whispers. So softly, so gently that if Pippa wasn’t so close, wasn’t feeling the words against her pink lips as they lightly tickled them with hot, shallow gasps, she was sure to have missed them.

“We’ll be ok,” Pippa foolishly mumbles a promise she doesn’t sure she can keep as she wipes the tears from Hecate cheek. “We’ll be ok,” she repeats before leaning her forehead against the brunette’s.

——————————-

“I don’t know,” Maud, always the reasonable one, says as her eyes studying the map Mildred managed to sneak out from the library. “The Hollow Woods have been avoided by witches in years for a reason.”

“No incident have been reported in years!” Mildred claims “It’s just stories, fairytales young witches been told so they won’t get into trouble,”

“My mother made those stories sound very real” Enid remarks and her eyes are still hunted with the horrors of a child being warned from the great danger in the woods. Suddenly, Mildred is happy with her non magical mother and the monster under the bed who is easily scared away by homemade fairy dust.

“Anyway it’s my only chance,” Mildred whispers, her eyes glint with determination and her hands clenched tight, “It’s the only place we can get the lichen and find my mother,”

“You still won’t be able to make the potion without the Great Wise Owl Feather,” Maud replies

“I will be one step closer,” Mildred sighs before she locks her eyes at her friends “So, will you help me?”

——————-

Hecate is used to seeing the three trouble makers - Enid, Maud and Mildred, hushing and whispering. She also used to the insults Ethel throws upon Mildred - causing the latter to lost her control and blows up her potion- at the best scenario- or the lab at the worst.

What she is not used to is seeing Maud and Enid pale faces whenever they whisper something to Mildred. Usually Maud will be the reasonable one, trying to save her friends from getting into troubles but the way Enid seems so nervous around Mildred now, that was new.

She let them work hard, forces them to master the protection potion before the end of class, she keeps her eyes focus on Mildred, trying to figure out what exactly the girl is up to.

————————-

“We shouldn’t do this,” Maud says as they stand at the woods entrance.

Something in the air feels different now that they are so close to the place they have been warned about since birth. Maud and Enid can feel the dark energy of magic that surrounds the tall trees and green leaves around them. _‘The woods will deceive you with their beauty,’_ their mothers used to warn but Mildred non magical childhood didn’t allow her to see the danger in something so beautiful, so harmless.

“It’s just trees!” Mildred declares, “Come on Maud, we’ve dealt with much worse than trees, we’ve dealt with Ethel..”

“She has a point…” Enid shrugs but her face still a shade paler than usual.

_‘The woods remember’_ Her mother words rings in her ears _‘The woods mark you,'_

“Come on,” Mildred takes one step toward the woods and sighs in relief. She is _indeed_ fine, for a second she thought she might be set on fire. “See, everything all right,” she smiles.

“Mildred Hubble,” a stern voice behind her call and a little part of her wishes she was on fire.

“Miss Hardbroom,” Mildred turns around to see a very angry brunette standing behind Maud and Enid. Something akin to relief passes her friends face at being caught and she can not believe they actually fear those trees more than their teacher. “I can explain,” she tries, but she knows its fruitless, her teacher face is hard and stoic and the look in her eyes is a look she never seen before. She is in big trouble.

“I’m sure you can, I’m sure you can explain why all of you are out here when you should be at chanting class, I’m sure you can explain why you are all standing at the entrance of the Hollow Woods, a place every witch knows to stay away from.” Hecate flips her fingers and the they all vanish.

They reappears on the academy grounds, outside, near the lake where she and Maud first met their teacher. “Please, _explain_ ,” Miss Hardbroom demands.

“Miss Hardbroom we were just looking for Tabby,” Enid utters all of the sudden, “Mildred tried to train him to fly and he ran away,”

“Yes!” Mildred continues, “We are afraid he might be lost in those woods,”

“I see,” Miss Hardbroom says but it's clear from the look in her eyes she is not convinced, with one flip of her hand Tabby appears next to Mildred. “Detention,”

——————-

From a young age Mildred knew she was different. Not because she was the odd one in her family. Her mother, Julie was blonde with blue clear eyes and her father was the tallest man she ever seen, he had no hair but he used to have a blond hair too, and his eyes were green.

But it wasn’t that. It was not the lack of resemblance of physical appearance to her parents. It’s her inability to let things go. Once she had her mind settled on something - she was going full speed towards it, letting no obstacles or warning signs stop her.

When she was three, right after her Mother’s car accident, she learned she was adopted. The social worker sat in front of her and tried to explain that she must go with her. But Mildred didn’t want to go, she didn’t want to be away from her mother, her mother _needed_ her, she needed her more than ever now. And she didn’t care she can’t spend the night at the hospital, she didn’t care her father didn’t want anything to do with her because she is nothing but _trouble._ No. She needed to stay with her mother, and that’s how she suddenly, for the second time that day found herself exactly where she wanted to be.

She somehow appeared outside her mother’s hospital room, her mother was connected to all kind of machines that made all kinds of noises she couldn’t understand. But one thing she could understand and that was the nurses talk.

_“She will never make it,” the nurse said_

_“Her poor child, can you imagine? going to back to the system after already being adopted? How unlucky one person can be?” the other nurse replied._

And that’s how Mildred found out. Though at her young age she couldn’t really understand the meaning behind those words. But _lucky_ for her she had years upon years to learn it meaning in the system.

Growing up in foster care didn’t manage to tame her wild spirit. Every social worker, foster mother or father she encountered during those years tried their best to make her fit in, but she never did. And in time she didn’t want to fit in. When they pushed her she pushed back, when they told her she can’t she proved she can. When they told her she shouldn’t she sneaked out and did.

And that’s exactly what she did now. Mildred Hubble let no social worker or foster parent stand in her way, she is clearly not going to let trees stand in her way. She took one deep breath before she walked towards the woods.

—————-

“I’m telling you she’s up to something I can _feel_ it,” Hecate says to the blonde in the mirror.

“The Hollow Woods?” The blonde asks, still shocked from her friend first confession. “How she manages to make Enid and Maud come with her, I mean they must have been warned about it,”

“That girl can pursue a fish to climb a tree!, She’s reckless!”

“Hecate, please sit,” she tries to calm the restless woman from behind the mirror. Hecate is walking back and forth in her room, her hair down and her hands clenched tight, when Hecate finally listens to her and sit down Pippa taking a deep breath before she cautiously speaks, “Maybe you should talk to her,”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the only reason she will walk into those woods is for ingredients and the only thing she can’t achieve outside of the woods is the-“

“Rarest lichen” Hecate whispers, her eyes wide when it finally clicked, Mildred is trying to make _that_ potion, Mildred is trying to find out.

“Miss Hardbroom!” A voice outside her door call and she quickly gets up and opened her room to a very shaken Maud Spellbody, “It’s Mildred,” Maud gasps, “She’s not in her room, I think- I-I think she went to the Hollow Woods,"

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think.


End file.
